He’s an Old but Cool Cat

Metro is the elder statesman of our animal menagerie. He has been a member of the family for a long time – almost as long as we’ve been a family! He turned 18 in December and is definitely showing signs of getting old. He has lost some weight over the last year or so, but he’s an old man so that’s to be expected.

I brought him to the vet this weekend. It has been a few years since his last visit and since he was getting old (and having some trouble eating) we thought a visit was due. He is extremely friendly (a purring lap cat) to Kathy and I, and will put up with others who he can sense are cat lovers. But the vet has always been an issue. Metro does NOT like the vet. In fact, vets tend to be quite scared of him which always seems a little crazy. I mean, don’t we have any James Herriot‘s around anymore? You can’t defend yourself against a little 8 pound fuzz ball?

So, for the vet to take blood, they insisted on gassing him. They don’t subject him to a lot of gas, just enough to immobilize him. So they do their thing and knock him out. When the vet brings him back after taking his blood, he can’t move because of the gas, but he is just growling. A continuous low angry growl. Totally a riot! He must have thought that was his only defense. When he comes out of the anesthetic and we get him to the car he stops growling and goes back to being the friendly cat he is.

On Monday, the vet calls and tells me that he has kidney disease. Nothing immediately devastating, but not exactly great news. They’ve prescribed a new diet and a renal pill. Metro loves the new food – he tucks into it with a vengeance! Plus he eats the pill, saving me the requirement of force feeding him. When his time comes, it will be a sad day for us obviously. I’ve never had a pet for so long and he’s been a great cat. Hopefully the new diet will keep him happy for a nice long time.

I have no real purpose or message behind this story – I’m just sharing. I thought this might be more interesting then my hill repeat workout yesterday. I had a nice 9.5 mile run that included 10 climbs up Mt. Flash at decent pace. But I have no data to share because Garmin choked while downloading and lost the run. Stupid GPS watch…